| Hi, HELP!! The last couple of days the critters ate several of my good hardly lillies off RIGHT AT THE BASE. They just left the stalk there. Please... what can I put there to prevent them from chewing on the base? I heard that Repellex is good. Should I use that? Also, my Stella D'Oros and my regular day lillies now are getting very hard green pods on them. Should I cut them off near the base of the stem? Thanks so much for your help... its been super great! Dorian |
| Since we don't know which critter might be chewing on your lilies, I'd recommend some temporary caging. Use a 18-24" wide width of chicken wire or hardware cloth and simply encircle the stem of each lily. It's relatively inexpensive and the chicken wire will be barely noticable in your garden. Drive 2 or 3 thin metal stakes into the ground and use twist ties to attach the wire to the stakes so each cylinder protects the stem of your lily. Do you have Mountain Beavers in your neighborhood. These critters are relatively harmless but they do have a habit of gnawing stems off at nearly ground level. They usually drag the vegetation back to their dens. I've lost a half-dozen gladioli to these housecat sized critters! The only way I saved the rest of my glads was to encircle them with chicken wire. They didn't show up the following year... I'd cut the seed pods off the daylilies. If you keep the spent flowering stems cut down they usually produce more later in the season. Best wishes with your lilies! |
